More Vegetables, Please! ~ Vegetable Soup ~

January 23, 2016

It’s a snow day! It’s a snow weekend! So far we have about 3 inches of snow; with 20+ more expected. I love it! We are hoping the power stays on, but while we have it, we hammered out some cooking. Simmering on the stove right now is a HUGE pot of vegetable soup. I’ve been making it a lot lately. It’s easy, it uses whatever you have on hand, and it’s good! It also is a good dish to eat in the winter, as eating warm soups in cold weather allows us to live in accordance with the seasons.

Always start with mirapoix (onion, celery, and carrot – these 3 ingredients should always be on hand, in my opinion).

What fresh vegetables do you have? Today we had a head of cauliflower and 5 small Yukon gold potatoes. Cut these into small pieces and add to the pot. Salt, pepper.

Cover with broth/stock/water. I’ve used all variations here from homemade bone broth to plain water. Today I used a box of vegetable broth and topped with water.

Bring to a boil and then simmer until vegetables have softened.

What vegetables do you have in your freezer? I am a huge fan of frozen vegetables and we always have a freezer-full of them. They’re good for when you run out of fresh vegetables, you can buy them organic, and because they are usually blanched and flash frozen, they retain their nutritional benefits. Today I used the rest of a bag of frozen broccoli, 1 ½ bags of chopped frozen spinach, a bag of cut green beans, and ¼ bag of peas.

Add these to the pot, add more water if necessary, and add more salt. You’ll want to add salt every time you add a layer of new vegetables; more if you’re using water, less if you’re using a boxed broth.

Allow all to simmer for a while. It’s ok to cook the vegetables well (I like them mushy!). All of the nutrition leaks out into the soup, so you are not losing any of the “good stuff.”

Today we had some leftover parsley on hand (from this meatloaf recipe that was made into meatballs this afternoon), so I added that at the end. Salt and pepper to taste, and tada!

Vegetables have good flavor, and lightly seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic can make for a very easy, very filling, and very yummy nutrient-dense HUGE pot of soup to carry you through a week. . . or at least a long blizzard weekend. Here’s hoping for power so we can reheat leftovers 🙂